Most of us early interventionists work with families one-on-one. But how great would it be to facilitate a parent/child playgroup? Not only could you work with multiple children at once, but you could also connect families going through similar experiences. Green et al. investigated a specific type of playgroup geared toward enhancing parent interaction in communication (referred to as EPIIC) playgroups.

The EPIIC playground was structured like a typical morning preschool session. They did a hello song, a play activity, story time, and snack. They also built in time to address each child’s individual IFSP goals. Each playgroup session had a different theme, such as “what makes me learn to love books” and “what makes me laugh.”

Instead of the teacher or SLP leading the group, the parents worked directly with their children while being coached by the SLP. For instance, the SLP might model a page or two of shared book-reading, and then let the parent take over. The SLP facilitates the session, while parents interact with their child, learn new strategies, and meet other parents in their same boat!

After seven playgroup sessions, all children demonstrated increased communication skills. All of the parents improved their use of communication strategies with their children. Informally, parents reported being very happy with the playgroup, and felt that they learned new strategies and gained knowledge. The EPIIC playgroup model seems like a pretty epic way to deliver evidence-based services to families. Get it?

For a specific breakdown of the playgroup schedule and a full list of the topics used, be sure to check out the original article here.